Toads In Tandem: Observing love and broken things

What happens when runaway sentence and a dash of sunny team up? Magic! When Marian and I first began writing we were practically on the same wavelength and ended up selecting the same topic. Writing alongside her was an amazing experience! Hope you guys like our poem.

                                                               

Observing love and broken things

Through darkness peer your words

                     and songs

we celebrate and eulogize--

in youth, you are the song unsung.

Difficult to rationalize

such a loss, the depth of your eyes

a well from which we all sustained

our sodden tenderness, disguised

as sunshine. Now it looks like rain.

I reach out and extend my hand

to you, a silhouette fading

as crumbled stone on shifting sand.

Love, I fear my heart is breaking.

Now outside daylight is fading--

upon your face I stole a glance.

We used to laugh, but now I am

                 whispering:

won’t you give me a second chance?

It’s when I started losing things

that I stepped back to look at you--

doubly brash, emboldened by drink,

you, whose lyrics always rang true.

Losses aside, the spark of you

roils in my belly like a burn

that’s emberred long, waiting

                            out blue,

then brown, until comes shadow’s turn--

I remember your smile, sweet tune

as waning sky grows pale

                                     and gold.

Your memories flood until June,

trees emblazoned, though sun is cold.

I beg my heart stay strong and bold

now as I live on without you

in world where truth is seldom told.

Love as we knew it comes to few.

Seems unwise to love so truly

given the harshness of our world--

but again, without your beauty,

my meager verse as yet unfurled,

I’d have given in to the swirl

as you did, and chose every day.

So I sing the song of our world,

wishing earnestly you

                    had stayed.

Love, if I could give you one thing

would lend ability to see,

oh, since you taught my heart to sing

from aberrations to live free--

Now all these thoughts

            have come to me--

when life knocks you down, gaze at stars.

Though long and sombre sky may seem,

this place and this moment is ours.

source

The form we chose is called Huitain also known as The Monk's Stanza (first introduced in the Garden by Kerry a few years ago, here). The verse form was popular in the 16th century and was often used for epigrams in the 18th century. The true Huitain is a single verse, eight line poem with eight syllables per line. The rhyme scheme is: ababbcbc

I remember going into panic mode when first trying to write in this form but Marian's cheerfulness and optimism removed every trace of doubt from my soul. Thank you Marian for being such a wonderful writing partner and Kerry for assigning such a lovely project to us.

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